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Fatty Liver Disease Types, Risk Factors, & Prevention

People are more conscious about their appearance in today's world. Just having a good or healthy appearance does not help, you should be healthy from inside. Many research studies have recently revealed that if you are fat, overweight obese you are prone to a variety of serious health issues. Since we are talking about fat, do you know the fats we consume from foods are metabolized (broken down) in the liver? Now imagine what will happen in case this fat is accumulated in the liver itself? Let's get to know more about this condition called fatty liver.

What is Fatty Liver?

As a normal process, the fat content of the food we eat is metabolized (broken down) in the liver. When there is an abnormality in the process fat metabolization, this fat slowly keeps on accumulating in the liver excessively. When this fat accumulation in the liver surpasses the amount of fat our body can tolerate the condition is termed as fatty liver.

Types of Fatty Liver Disease

There are 3 types of fatty liver diseases

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)

This is the commonest and comparatively the least complicated one. It can be managed and treated easily with simple lifestyle changes.

Non-Alcoholic Steatorrhoeic Hepatitis (NASH)

Steatorrhea itself means an excess of fat in the stools. In this advanced type of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, there is swelling in and around the fatty liver cells. This can lead to the chronic liver disease called as liver cirrhosis (fibrous thickening of liver tissue)

Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: (ALD)

As the name suggests, this condition results from excessive consumption of alcohol.

Symptoms of Fatty Liver

Fatty liver is mostly an asymptomatic condition in its early stage. As the fat accumulation increases some of the following symptoms are seen

Mild abdominal discomfort

At a later stage, the liver swells up and display symptoms like:

Fatigue

Bloating

Jaundice

Persistent fever

Risks Factors in Fatty Liver

The known and common risk factors of fatty liver disease are:

Obesity

High alcohol intake

High-fat diet, especially in saturated fats

Insulin resistance

Diabetes

Lack of exercise

The less common risk factors are:

In pregnancy

Consumption of some prescription drugs like corticosteroids or tetracyclines

Prevention of Fatty Liver Disease

This is a highly preventable condition. Prevention plays a major role as the condition may not display any prominent symptoms. Fatty liver can be prevented as mentioned in the management of fatty liver section. Some important tips for its prevention are:

A healthy lifestyle

A well-balanced diet

Avoiding excess alcohol consumption

Weight management with a regular physical exercise regimen

Also, since the symptoms are usually not pronounced, a regular preventive health checkup is an ideal method to detect a fatty liver. Also, an early detection of this condition can prevent its most fatal complications like liver cirrhosis or even liver cancer.

A regular health checkup is the smartest and easiest way to protect your health. Indus Health Plus, the preventive health specialist offers full body checkup packages. These packages cover most of the comprehensive tests and give you a complete health profile. For further details about prevention, any health related queries or even sharing your valuable thoughts please fill the query form and we will help you with it.